Dubai, UAE; October 4, 2010: Horeca Trade LLC, the UAE’s leading food service provider has won the coveted Food Supplier of the Year award at the first live Caterer Middle East Awards 2010 gala ceremony held at Park Hyatt Hotel in Dubai.

Horeca Trade bested 15 other leading suppliers vying for the Food Supplier of the Year award selected by a panel of food and beverage professionals around the Middle East.

Soula Baroudi, Horeca Trade’s marketing manager, said: ““I would like to thank each and everyone who voted for us. This is a very important award for Horeca Trade because it recognises everything that we do in the market. There are many top distributors and suppliers operating in the Middle East but Horeca Trade is the pioneer in maintaining a sharp edge versus competition, and securing a close rapport with customers.”

On this level, Horeca Trade will soon launch “Horecarewards” – a new loyalty program dedicated to the foodservice customers. It’s the first loyalty program of its kind that is dedicated to the foodservice channel.

The winner of the Food Supplier of the Year category was selected by a panel of judges, through online voting from a shortlist, which was formed based on submissions from the nominees.

Ms. Baroudi also acknowledged the effective marketing campaign plan that Horeca Trade launched when the online voting started in August. “We initiated a campaign plan to encourage our clients to support us. We have included a link in our emails where the recipients can just click on it and vote for us. We have also distributed flyers to our customers to explain to them the process of voting and with every phone call we invited our customers to vote for us. We understand that the voting procedure required time but our customers did it because they believe that we deserve to win and it really helped.”

Caterer Middle East magazine initiated the Caterer Award in 2009 to recognise the hard work and dedication of a variety of F&B professionals, outlets and companies across the region.

The Food Supplier of the Year award is given to a company dealing in food stuffs or food-related products that not only meets but exceeds expected standards. The company is recognized for its willingness to go more than the extra mile to meet their Middle East clients’ expectations, be that by sourcing a new product, meeting a tight deadline or providing a large volume of a quality product.

Meanwhile, Horeca Trade, one of the sponsors of the event, handed the trophies to the winners of the Educator of the Year category.

This year’s ceremony mark the second year of the awards and the first live ceremony for the biggest event in the Middle East’s F&B calendar attended by top players in the industry.